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RAMALLAH: Latifa Abu Hamid, 75, mother of five Palestinian prisoners, points at pictures of her family during an interview at her home in Ramallah. — AFP
RAMALLAH: Latifa Abu Hamid, 75, mother of five Palestinian prisoners, points at pictures of her family during an interview at her home in Ramallah. — AFP

Joy and anxiety for Palestinian mother as sons freed

RAMALLAH: Palestinian woman Latifa Abu Hamid said she was filled with “indescribable joy” when she heard that her three sons had been freed from Zionist entity prisons, even though they had been forced into exile. The three released Saturday were among dozens of inmates freed in exchange for Zionist prisoners held by Gaza militants, under the truce agreement between the Zionist entity and Hamas.

Like Abu Hamid’s sons, many Palestinians released by the Zionist entity were not sent home but deported. The 74-year-old resident of Ramallah in the West Bank, which is occupied by the Zionist entity, has had five of her 10 children detained by the Zionist entity, some for decades, over their involvement in armed resistance.

Her three sons Nasr, 50, Sharif, 45, and Mohammed, 35, were released on Saturday from a prison in southern the Negev desert. “I’m so happy. I spoke to them ... I heard their voices,” said Abu Hamid. “Of course, I would prefer them to live with us, to be here so we could enjoy their presence,” she said.

Out of 200 prisoners released on Saturday, nearly all Palestinian but including one Jordanian, 70 were handed over to Egypt, and some plan to settle in Qatar or another third country.

‘Never lost hope’

Abu Hamid’s living room is adorned with large painted portraits of each family member and photo montages showing her flashing a victory sign and surrounded by her sons. Certificates of detention were displayed like diplomas. Another photograph showed her in a dress decorated with the faces of her sons alongside an image of the Dome of the Rock, the iconic Muslim shrine in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is illegally annexed by the Zionist entity. “For more than 40 years, I’ve been visiting my sons in prison — more than half my life — and I’ve never lost hope of seeing them free,” she said.

Now that three are out of jail, “it’s an indescribable joy,” said the mother. “But the joy remains incomplete because my son Islam and the rest of the prisoners are still” locked up, she added. One of her sons, 38-year-old Islam, has been sentenced to life like his three brothers, but is not on the Zionist entity’s list of prisoners eligible for release under the Gaza truce agreement. Abu Hamid said Islam killed a Zionist soldier with a stone during an army raid on the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, where the family once lived.

The eldest, Naser, was one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed group established during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. He died of cancer in detention and the Zionist entity has never returned his body, said the mother. Another son, a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, was killed by the Zionist military in 1994.

Abu Hamid recounted how her home in Al-Amari camp had been destroyed by the Zionist army as part of a policy of reprisals against the families of Palestinians responsible for deadly attacks on Zionists, a measure condemned by the UN and human rights organizations. Her daughter-in-law Alaa Abu Hamid, Naser’s wife, said that “we’ve been through extremely difficult days.” “The time has finally come to find peace and regain family stability.”

Her mother-in-law noted, however, that three of her grandchildren could not attend the large family gathering planned to celebrate the releases. They, too, are in detention. It is not uncommon for Palestinian families to have multiple members imprisoned. Thousands of people have been detained in the West Bank by the Zionist entity. Since October 7, 2023, the total number of Palestinian detainees reached over 10,000, according to rights groups. 

Despite the release of three of her sons, Latifa Abu Hamid said she couldn’t “fully savor” her happiness “knowing that other prisoners remain behind bars”. “Even if Islam is freed, I won’t be truly happy until all of them are released.” — AFP

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